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Calloway v. City of Reno2/29/2000
because it involved a defective heating and plumbing system that caused water leakage and damage throughout the apartment complex. It was thus clear that, in contrast to the instant case, Oak Grove did not involve a single integrated product that "injured itself." The apartment complex there consisted of a number of separate apartment units that were each self-contained and constructed for the separate occupancy of the end users. Indeed, this court has not yet entered the fray among courts as to whether even a "house" constitutes a product for purposes of the law of strict products liability, let alone an entire apartment complex."
Pratt and Whitney, 107 Nev. at 538-39, 815 P.2d at 603 (footnote added).
The primary distinction drawn by the majority between Pratt and Whitney and Oak Grove involved the fact that a component part of one apartment unit damaged other units in the complex rather than a component part of a single integrated entity (or apartment unit) causing injury to itself. This seemingly ignores the fact that Oak Grove does not, in its dictum on the subject, draw any distinction between damages to the individual units in which the fittings were installed and damages caused by any one fitting to any or all of the other units. Further, in Oak Grove, the offending fittings had been installed in all of the separate apartment units. Thus, we cannot determine from the facts of Oak Grove whether the water damage resulting from any one fitting caused damage to "other property," to wit: the other units.
Secondly, the Pratt and Whitney majority observes that the economic loss doctrine was never intended to apply to construction projects that "reflect the products and efforts of so many different manufacturers, laborers, crafts, supervisors and inspectors in the creation of an essentially permanent place of habitation." Pratt and Whitney, 107 Nev. at 539, 815 P.2d at 603. Of course, this comment applies with equal force to the manufacture of an airplane -- a much more complex entity than many commercial or residential buildings.
Third, the Pratt and Whitney majority notes that commercial products that injure themselves are readily insurable, and thus, suitable for inclusion in the economic loss doctrine. This distinction is questionable because residential and commercial structures are also readily covered by first-party casualty insurance.
Thus, the distinctions attempted did not demonstrate a sufficient doctrinal reason as a matter of public policy to justify variant treatment for these purposes between apartment, commercial or home construction on one hand, and complex conveyances such as automobiles, steamships or airplanes on the other. Again, airplanes as well as apartment complexes or houses are self-contained entities that are the end result of an integration of hundreds, if not thousands of component parts. Thus, in my view, Pratt and Whitney cannot be reconciled with this court's decision in Oak Grove.
Notwithstanding the statements made in Pratt and Whitney, and as noted by the majority in this case, there are numerous cases from other jurisdictions in which the economic loss doctrine is applied to construction defect cases. Given the parallel policies that could apply to both construction and products defects cases, Pratt and Whitney should have rejected the dictum in Oak Grove as no longer valid. I therefore agree that the economic loss doctrine is generally implicated when a product or an integrated piece of construction injures itself. This, of course, is the position taken by the U.S. Supreme Court in East River. Thus, Stern, Central Bit, Arco and Pratt and Whitney (excepting its attempt to distinguish Oak Grove) all represe
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